Thad Matta is going to have to rebuild his staff.. He has lost his 2 top assistants in a short time...
Jeff Boals has been Matta's lead assistant for 7 years... Boals has been an assistant coach for 20 years now so he has paid his dues to become a head coach. He took an assistant job right out of college so he is now in his early 40's. Jeff is from a very small town in Ohio south of Canton towards Amish country.. Less than a 1000 people in the town so taking the Stony Brook job doesn't bother him in the least bit.. Stony Brook is out in Long Island and I think the town is less than 15,000 people. Its far enough away from New York City that it doesn't have the crazy traffic yet he can recruit the NYC metro for players. Heck, he is not real far from the Hamptons one way and can make a day of it going to Manhattan the other, both within an hour or so. It is a sound program as they made the NCAAs so he is going to a good situation.. He left Ohio to coach in West Virginia and in Pennsylvania, earlier in his career, though he was less than a couple hours from Ohio, in both cases.. This will be a new experience for him away from home and Ohio State players will miss that relationship.
Ohio State just lost assistant coach Jake Diebler. Jake's brother, Jon, is Ohio HS all time leading scorer and former Buckeye who now plays abroad. Jake played at Valparaiso so he knows the Drew family really well.. SO that made sense that he went to Vanderbilt to be an assistant for newly named head coach Bryce Drew.
For those that asked about Ohio State having those kids transfer out, this may have been a factor for a couple of the kids leaving as both are great guys.
Jeff Boals has been Matta's lead assistant for 7 years... Boals has been an assistant coach for 20 years now so he has paid his dues to become a head coach. He took an assistant job right out of college so he is now in his early 40's. Jeff is from a very small town in Ohio south of Canton towards Amish country.. Less than a 1000 people in the town so taking the Stony Brook job doesn't bother him in the least bit.. Stony Brook is out in Long Island and I think the town is less than 15,000 people. Its far enough away from New York City that it doesn't have the crazy traffic yet he can recruit the NYC metro for players. Heck, he is not real far from the Hamptons one way and can make a day of it going to Manhattan the other, both within an hour or so. It is a sound program as they made the NCAAs so he is going to a good situation.. He left Ohio to coach in West Virginia and in Pennsylvania, earlier in his career, though he was less than a couple hours from Ohio, in both cases.. This will be a new experience for him away from home and Ohio State players will miss that relationship.
Ohio State just lost assistant coach Jake Diebler. Jake's brother, Jon, is Ohio HS all time leading scorer and former Buckeye who now plays abroad. Jake played at Valparaiso so he knows the Drew family really well.. SO that made sense that he went to Vanderbilt to be an assistant for newly named head coach Bryce Drew.
For those that asked about Ohio State having those kids transfer out, this may have been a factor for a couple of the kids leaving as both are great guys.
